Constitutional law and ideas about constitutional law.

  • Stereotypes and Solidarity

    On April 9, a single panel of the European Court of Human Rights delivered three decisions (or “Grand Chamber rulings”) on climate change. Some headlines announced a landmark victory for Swiss seniors, but the reality – as always – is more complex. The decisions were written together by the same panel of judges. Read together, they show how…

  • Unprecedented volume and efficiency

    Unprecedented volume and efficiency

    While its usage rate dropped from the record-setting pace of R. v. Brunelle and the still-scorching Reference, the Court in Dickson dropped an impressive number of “frameworks” across a much longer set of reasons.  With this larger sample size, we can start to discern patterns in the Court’s use of “framework”. Like a good shot chart, this survey…

  • Frameworks all the way down?

    In Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada found that the Act in question is a valid exercise of Parliament’s s. 91(24) authority over “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.” As a result, the Indigenous laws it incorporates by reference are paramount…

Interesting case? New idea?